My Past is Useless
Recently I have had some trouble making significant progress.
It does not take a whole lot of effort to do good work and stay at pretty much the level in which you are at. However as I mentioned in Life Change is Hard Work, making fundamental alterations to yourself and contributions to society take real effort.
In trying to plan my actions I have been plagued by trying to satisfy all of lifes demands. I want to become a better person, I want to be really good at my job, etc, etc.
These are 2 reasons why I have not been able to go beyond and figure out a plan for myself.
- Compromising on my single most important goal/purpose. Trying to extend it to fit everything that I could possibly want.
- Complacency with my current progress, previous ’successes’.
Both are equally catastrophic but in this post I want to focus on point 2. The summation of my past.
The Past is Useless
It is easy to think ‘I am a good person’.
Easy to acknowledge that ‘I have come a long way’.
Easy to believe that ‘I always treat people kindly’.
Easy to comfort ourselves by ‘helping others the best we can’.
Indeed these statements have a certain amount of truth to them when seen from a particular viewpoint.
However all of them have at their root, complacency and laziness. They are self-serving, making us feel content with our efforts.
What they lack is the necessity of improvement.
When we say we are kind, then we consider ourselves good enough. When we help others to the best of our ability we think we are already doing all that we can possibly do.
It is with this background that I say that anything I have achieved today is useless to me.
Anything that I have learned in the past is already ingrained into my existence, I need not consider it.
The moment we have succeeded is when we finally fail.
When improvement stops we can be replaced by a machine; and should be for our arrogance.
Improvement is all that I need to concern myself with.
What Now
- Leave a comment
- Subscribe to Warrior Development
- Read posts in Making Change
- Follow me on Twitter
September 1st, 2008 at 12:23 pm
You’re right, Jarrod, when we get too comfortable with what what we’ve achieved in the past, we can become complacent. And then we’re not improving. And if we’re not, then we’re either standing still or going backwards - neither of which is good. Excellent point!
September 1st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
The process of learning never stops. I was caught in the trap of expecting to “have arrived” after going through some self improvement program or a period of releasing negative emotions. But I soon realised about life being more like a journey, that there are always things to learn and that I need to seek for continuous improvement.
September 1st, 2008 at 6:54 pm
You are completely right, that one should not lean on the success and stop improving. But if you have achieved something it is as important as to know in what you have failed. The success teaches you what works and what should be repeated. So you should get aware also about the positive things - one possibility is to celebrate your success.
I do not agree, that you never have to focus again on what you already learned. It can be that after some years some focus changes and old - also important things - are pushed into background. Example: First you were arriving punctual at meetings, then you focused on improving your productivity and about that you forgot that you still should arrive in time in meetings.
September 2nd, 2008 at 2:41 am
@Lance: It so easy to get comfortable without realising it, we really need a checking mechanism
@Evelyn Lim: With so much to learn, there is no time to stop. What a journey indeed
@Martin: I agree that it is useful to analyse cause and effect, in order to improve on some element in future activities. Revisiting memories in this way is fine and serves a purpose.
But I don’t like to think of things in terms of successes or positive outcomes. Beyond causality everything is something we added on and serves no useful purpose (feel free to discuss).
In regards to the example, I think it is another point when a checking/retrospective exercise is important. Something we should discuss in the future.
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:57 am
> Beyond causality everything is something we added on and
> serves no useful purpose (feel free to discuss).
I don’t understand that.
> It so easy to get comfortable without realising it
For me I think the opposite applies. I do see so much that I should learn so I often cannot find time to relax and reload. All the time on the run. And I don’t think that this is good. I think we need also to allow ourselves to get comfortable.
Those who are “lazy” or those who are repressing their problems by getting comfortable are not those you will in general have as your readers (or audience) because they will sit with a beer in front of the TV instead.
The other ones who are trying to improve do also need time to get comfortable.
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
>> Beyond causality everything is something we added on and
>> serves no useful purpose (feel free to discuss).
In this case I’m referring to us considering something a success or failure. If we think something is a success or failure, it does not add anything to reality.
> For me I think the opposite applies. I do see so much that I
> should learn so I often cannot find time to relax and reload.
> All the time on the run. And I don’t think that this is good.
> I think we need also to allow ourselves to get comfortable.
This time I don’t understand :).
What are you doing when you reload? What are we getting comfortable with?
I say it is easy to get comfortable without realising it because I have fallen into that trap many times over the years and stagnated with my internal development. I also know plenty of people who have done the same thing.
With developing internal skills such as compassion, understanding and insight I don’t really see the problem with trying to improve all the time. If I was focused on improving say all my technical software skills then yes I would forever be blindly running as the target keeps changing. Which area of improvement were you talking about?
I hope maybe one day a lazy person would stumble across a site like this and be spurred into action, that would be nice
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
>> Beyond causality everything is something we added on and
>> serves no useful purpose (feel free to discuss).
> In this case I’m referring to us considering something a success or
> failure. If we think something is a success or failure, it does not
> add anything to reality.
That depends on your interpretation where reality starts and ends. Are other people’s emotions reality or not? If somebody loves you - is it reality or not?
>> I think we need also to allow ourselves to get comfortable.
> This time I don’t understand :).
For me it is in general not easy to get comfortable. I am very seldom in the situation of getting comfortable and I do not think that I am just not realizing it.
Look here: http://www.slowdownnow.org/Main/Slow-manifesto.html
Don’t get me wrong - there are a lot of people that would very much need to read your tip - but probably they are not those reading your blog.
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:05 pm
> That depends on your interpretation where reality starts and
> ends. Are other people’s emotions reality or not?
> If somebody loves you - is it reality or not?
A good point. It depends when we talk about emotions. But lets leave that for another conversation
> For me it is in general not easy to get comfortable. I am very seldom
> in the situation of getting comfortable and I do not think that
> I am just not realizing it.
I don’t quite seem to understand why getting comfortable with something requires slowing down. I understand there is a tradeoff between learning new skills and learning old skills deeper. But particularly with internal development with things like removing fear, I don’t see where comfort and slowing come in.
Sorry dude, I seem to be quite slow at understanding you
September 22nd, 2008 at 2:56 am
It is like the philosophy of CANEI - Constant And Never Ending Improvement: http://www.awakeblogger.com/about/
“The past is useless” is a nice statement. I don’t know if you totally mean this 100% or if you are overemphasizing for making the point clear. I was recently emailed why I said “You are 100% responsible for what happens in your life.” It is really an “over-statement” but it is an empowering and subjective statement. If you are 100% responsible in your life, then you are able to act and are in charge. (Sure others are too, so it is not completely true from an objective point of view).
Because I think our memories (what really is what we call past) are in our database and can be used. What have we learned, where are we good, what is fun, what is to be avoided…
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:24 am
@Myrko: Yes I guess it can be read as an over-statement. What I wanted to point out was that resting on the past is pointless and that it is a very easy trap to fall into.
I agree totally with your reference to our memories as a database, that is how I look at them to. They form my intuitive basis for future decisions.
October 25th, 2008 at 4:40 am
Good introspective, Jarrod. I recently read an article, and there was a quote that made me both giggle and go “ah-hah” at the same time. The writer quoted another fella who used an analogy of life being much like a journey riding on the back of an elephant. The quote was, ”Life will be a lot easier,” Jimmy said, “if you make it all right with yourself to go where the elephant wants to go.”
The “elephant” in the article is destiny. Now that word “destiny” conjures up a bunch of meanings for a lot of people. For me, I’m not sure how I feel about it really. I mean, I believe we are all here for a purpose. Now what purpose that be is entirely unique to the individual… (continue reading>> http://on-common-ground.com/2007/11/06/where-the-elephant-wants-to-go
namaste, Roldan
November 11th, 2008 at 5:37 am
Hey Jarrod, in your experience, how much is wanting to improve yourself balanced out with accepting the way you are right now?
Is improvement the same as growth and expansion?
November 15th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I had to to think about this for awhile.
I do not balance wanting to improve with accepting myself.
I am fine with whoever I am, just as I am fine with whoever everyone else is. Then I also want everyone to become the best people possible.
So I see it as 100% self-acceptance and 100% self-improvement. Full effort in both areas always, no balancing.
It is hard for me to answer the second question, I don’t really have the contextual background on ‘growth and expansion’. Not a phrase I use. For it is all about refinement, constant polishing.
Thanks for the questions Ariel.
December 28th, 2008 at 4:54 am
Enjoy this moment!